NEW YORK - Baltimore's Buck Showalter was voted AL Manager of the Year for the third time on Tuesday, and Washington's Matt Williams won the NL honor following his first season as a big league skipper.

ARLINGTON - Yu Darvish came oh, so close again. The Japanese ace fell one out shy of a no-hitter for the second time Friday night, giving up only a ninth-inning single to David Ortiz in the Texas Rangers' 8-0 victory over the Boston Red Sox.

ARLINGTON - Shin-Soo Choo will be the leadoff hitter for the Texas Rangers in an offense they feel they have successfully remade this offseason.
Choo was formally introduced Friday, nearly a week after agreeing to a $130 million, seven-year deal.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Errors by Alberto Gonzalez and Mike Olt in a three-pitch span allowed the tiebreaking run to score in the 10th inning, giving the Kansas City Royals a 7-6 victory over the slumping Texas Rangers on Sunday.

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Albert Pujols and Bobby Wilson homered, and Mike Trout scored a run in his 14th consecutive game to set an AL rookie record, leading the Los Angeles Angels to a 7-4 victory over the Texas Rangers on Sunday night to win the three-game series.

CINCINNATI - The Reds aren't sure whether right-hander Johnny Cueto will be able to start as planned Tuesday because of a blister on the index finger of his pitching hand.
The first-place Reds aren't used to worrying about a starter.

ARLINGTON - Yu Darvish threw a wild pitch that allowed the tiebreaking run and lost at home for the first time with the Texas Rangers, a 3-1 defeat against Oakland despite the Japanese ace's 11 strikeouts in seven innings Sunday night.

CHICAGO - Travis Wood pitched shutout ball into the eighth inning and used some nifty base-running to set up Anthony Rizzo's go-ahead single as the Chicago Cubs completed a three-game sweep of the Houston Astros with a 3-0 win on Sunday.

ARLINGTON - Josh Hamilton hit a three-run homer to cap a big fifth inning, Martin Perez won his first career start and the Texas Rangers extended their winning streak to five games, beating the Oakland Athletics 7-2 on Saturday.

NEW YORK - The Cardinals Allen Craig hit a tiebreaking, two-run homer in the eighth inning and the Cardinals found a bit of absent pop, beating the New York Mets 5-4 Monday and stopping their season-worst losing streak at five.

KISSIMMEE, Fla. - As bad as last season was for the Houston Astros, it was worse for Jason Castro. The season never really happened for the team's young catcher, who tore his right ACL during the second exhibition game a year ago.

DETROIT - Free agent first baseman Prince Fielder and the Detroit Tigers agreed Tuesday on a nine-year, $214-million contract that fills the AL Central champions' need for a power hitter, a person familiar with the deal said.

ARLINGTON - Yu Darvish leaned over and looked at his name and the No. 11 on the back of his Texas Rangers jersey. Then he looked up and smiled.
"Excited, that's all I feel right now," Darvish said through a translator. "Just excited going forward.

BOSTON - Pitcher Daniel Bard and the Boston Red Sox reached agreement Saturday on a one-year contract and avoided salary arbitration. Bard and the Red Sox settled at $1,612,500, the midpoint between the $1,825,000 he asked for and the $1.